Baseball

Baseball Comes Back to Drop Wagner, 5-4

NEW BRITAIN, CT - Mike Drowne (S. Hadley, MA) hit a walk-off single over the head of Wagner center fielder Damian Csakai in the bottom of the ninth, scoring Steve Tedesco (Mission Viejo, CA) to give the Sacred Heart baseball team a come-from-behind win over top seed Wagner in the NEC Baseball Tournament Saturday afternoon.

The win puts the Pioneers, 29-26-1 into the NEC Championship game against #4 Monmouth at 3:30. Because the Pioneers are coming out of the losers bracket, they would have to beat the Hawks twice to claim the title.

SHU trailed 4-2 going into the bottom of the eighth inning when junior catcher Jeff Heppner (Aqubogue, NY) launched his 13th homer of the season, a solo shot to dead center.

Reliever Chris Zaccherio (Manhasset, NY) kept the Seahawks off the board in the top of the ninth. In the bottom, Ryan Lynch (N. Babylon, NY) led off with a single off the glove of Wagner first baseman Vin Avella. Paul Schmidt (Amityville, NY) tried to bunt Lynch over but it was right back to the mound and Wagner closer Andrew Huebner and he threw to second to get the lead runner.

Tedesco then singled to center and Schmidt raced toward third. The throw from the outfield from Wagner's Csakai was wild, allowing Schmidt to score and Tedesco to score. Drowne then came up and lifted a deep shot to center over the head of the Wagner outfielder for the win.

Zaccherio got the win with three scoreless innings of relief to even his mark at 5-5. Huebner blew his first save in two years and fell to 1-2.